How Long Have You Been A Fan?

[Brie]

I have always found myself wondering how people get into a fandom. Were they raised around it, did they stumble upon it, did they seek it out? Then while thinking about that I start thinking if these people have ALWAYS been a fan or if the recently converted. this gets me into my next topic.

How did you become a Trekkie and how long have you been a fan?

A little back-story on my trek fandom...I was never a Star Trek fan growing up, I was always into Sci-fi but ST never really interested me. I have memories of my dad talking about ST or watching episodes but I was very little and would kind of tease him for being a "trekkie." About a year after he passed away (and after much badgering by some of my ST fan friends) I decided to watch the show. I started with the pilot episode and after about 5-10 episodes I was hooked for good. I then spent the next year watching every episode from every series and every movie and documentary about ST. So all in all I would say I have been a fan for a little over a year.

A lot of my reasoning for never having watched ST before was my age, I'm a fairly young trekkie (21) and was never really raised on Trek, but that didnt stop me from being the self aclaimed biggest fan haha. I know every trekkie wants to make that claim and I'm probably wrong in calling myself the BIGGEST fan so I'll downplay it a bit and say I'm the biggest fan of my generation. After having watched the show Star Trek became my life, it defined who I was essentially. I started traveling to Conventions, cosplaying as a red shirt, I collected ccomics, and toys, and costumes and trinkits, basically anything I saw that was Star Trek I bought. When I went to my most recent convention the moment I first saw Shatner in person I cried. Some of my friends thought I was down right insane and laughed at me quite a bit haha. I then proceded to sit in on his Q&A panel where I preceded to cry some more at his heartwarming stories and gratitude toward our town and the people who helped set up the convention. Then on the all too sad day that Nimoy died, I cried and cried and cried, I was hysterical for a portion of the day. His death hit me in a weird way. I never met him I wasn't related to him yet his death hit me so strong that I thought I was losing it haha.

Here is me at one of my conventions cosplaying as a red shirt (I died shortly after this picture was taken lol)

I know I am a huge Trek fan, especially for having not been a fan for very long, but I also know a lot of you out there are equally as big of fans as me so lets hear it, how long have you been a fan and what got you into Trek?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I discovered Star Trek as a seven year old in the 1960s, but really became a fan in the early 1970s when TOS was being rerun ( often five days a week afterschool) and would watch TAS on the weekends. I even drew a Star Trek based comic where I copied the TAS designs. My best friend was into Trek as well and had a lot of the cool stuff like blueprints.

So I'm old.

 

[Kilana2]

I´m from Germany and it started when I was about 15 with TOS and TNG. These shows were shown on TV. One of my earliest recollections is the TNG episode “Conspiracy” with the parasites. The famous and much discussed “Remmick” scene was removed because of youth protection. They forgot to remove that scene in one of the later TNG episodes.

The “first contact” with Voyager was when I visited my American relatives in San Bernadino/California. VOY was completely new to me and the Germans at large.

In my class were several Trekkies, only females. One of them used to wear a miniskirt like you, only in science blue. She called herself T´Pesh and was Spock fan.

I became DS9 fan via reading the novels. First the old ones, then the relaunch. Before reading the novels I have watched just a few single episodes.
I have bought the whole DS9 series on DVD and VOY seasons 2-7. I´m disappointed about the bad quality of the DVDs as mentioned in another thread. Several episodes can´t be played back.

I´m not much a fan of ENT, but I like Hoshi, Shran and Porthos. I don´t read ENT novels, except short stories and I have watched only single episodes.

I still collect Star Trek novels and I´m the proud owner of about 443 novels (in German and in English).

I didn´t have the luck yet to attend Conventions, but you´ll never know.

Now I´m 36

 

[Melakon]

With Star Trek, since I was 15, but I became a visual science fiction fan in 1959 at 8.

 

[HarryM]

I literally grew up watching it and always loved it, so it's hard to say. Sometime in the early 70s I guess.

 

[Greg Cox]

I have dim memories of watching TOS during its original run on NBC when I was a little kid. My dad would sometimes let me stay up past my bedtime to watch STAR TREK with him, which was a big deal. Later, of course, I watched the syndicated reruns until I knew practically every episode by heart.

I didn't really discover "organized" fandom until college, thanks to the Western Washington University sf club. This was about the time the first Trek movies started coming out, so I have fond memories of group trips to see TMP and THE WRATH OF KHAN. And that's when I started going to conventions as well, and meeting veteran Trek writers like Theodore Sturgeon, which began to put the idea in my head that you could maybe make a living at this sort of thing . . .

 

[IrishNero]

I began watching TOS with my stepfather when I was about 5 years old. It was a marvelous thing to me; the idea that we would be able to live in space one day, and see everything. My stepfather was the one who introduced me to Trek. My biological father was a polar opposite of my stepdad. -Very pragmatic. He liked old Westerns. However my stepdad liked fantasy and space, and that's how I was initially introduced to Trek.

My biological father never understood me. He thought me a bit of a dreamer and criticized everything about me; my long hair (at the time), my love for art and music, and what I watched. He was into Westerns and I was into Trek and BSG. We were from different worlds.

When I joined the military out of High School, my biological father wasn't happy about it at all. I went into Special Ops too, which meant lots of travel. I wanted to explore places, see new things and do something exciting. After I began working on my Ph.D., my stepfather was very encouraging. My biological father was not. In fact, when I called to tell him that I had passed my dissertation defense, the first thing he said was "Well, good. Now you can stop going to school" You see, I never really got that about him. There was never any praise for anything.

Both of my two fathers have now passed; my stepdad in 2006 and my biological father last year. I used to think that I was a product of my Stepdad, but that's actually untrue. The fact is, they both taught me lessons that I would use all of my life. And Trek also helped to forge what and who I became, and its influence has never went away. Trek speaks to both the imaginative and pragmatic sides of me.

 

[BillJ]

1975. Which are my first memories of watching the show.

 

[HIjol]

Since September 8th, 1966; almost 49 years

Jesus...has it been that long?

 

[Amaris]

The year was 1984: A young Harry Anderson was making us laugh on Night Court, President Reagan was running for a second term, a hilarious and thin Dan Aykroyd played a ghost busting nerd in movie theaters across the nation, and the U.S. had crushed all opposition at the 14th Olympic winter games in Sarajevo, where they apparently didn't know it was Christmas. I was a precocious 4 year old lad, who enjoyed watching My Little Pony, He-Man, and Fraggle Rock.

One fateful day, my mother had finished the house cleaning early, and so we decided to watch some television. She sat me down next to her on the couch, and turned on the TV, flipping through talk shows and soap operas, until she landed on an episode of a show called Star Trek.

This is where things get fuzzy. If I recall correctly, the episode I saw was The Corbomite Maneuver, but it could have been The Man Trap, I'm not 100% on that one. Either way, I was hooked. I loved the flashing buttons, the special effects, the phaser fights, and Captain Kirk's awesome action moves, even if it was all in black and white. I was a Trekkie for life, and I knew it from that moment forward.

I felt that same elation a few years later during the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation. We saw it at my aunt's house, on her huge 19" color TV. I remember the countdowns, the promos, the interviews, and Entertainment Tonight doing a special broadcast before the episode. It was an event, and one I remember clearly to this day.

While my love of Trek has waxed and waned over the 31 years I've been a fan, it has never disappeared. The Abrams films rekindled it, making me love it all over again, as if I were that little kid laying on the floor, head propped up on his arms, staring at that 13" black and white TV, watching the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

 

[bbailey861]

I don't remember exactly when I started watching TOS but it was early on. I didn't see the first two seasons on-air since I was living in Germany with my Dad who was stationed there, but I have it on authority from Dad that when we came back I did watch during the last the last season. I know and can remember that I started watching it faithfully in the early 70s when it was on syndication. My parents bought me a tape recorder and cassette tapes so I could record and listen to all the shows at my leisure. The earliest memory I do have - and maybe it's one of the reasons I got hooked - is seeing the salt monster and being scared to death. Damn thing still gives me chills.

 

[lurok]

Since the moment I first saw it.

 

[B.J.]

I honestly don't remember a time when I *wasn't* a Star Trek fan. My earliest solid memory is going to see TWOK in theaters when I was nearly 8 years old, but I know that I was already a fan at that point.

 

[Green Shirt]

My earliest Star Trek memory was in second grade (1966-7) when I took my father's razor and tried to give myself "Spock eyebrows". All I accomplished was to cut them half off. Too bad Fred Phillips wasn't available to finish the job. So I guess I was a fan from the beginning.

 

[SPCTRE]

Since the moment I first saw it.

Yup. Probably 1989-ish.

 

[Cyke101]

Star Trek V. I was a little kid then. These days I can't really sit through the entire movie anymore, but it still holds a spot in my heart as my gateway drug Into Trekness.

 

[wildsulu]

@ Brie:

Quite a story!

I cried.

Aww. It must be a bit strange for mr. Shatner

What I like about your story is that as a young person apparently you have the most affinity with TOS. I do wonder why you like Star Trek more than other shows and movies. There is a lot of good stuff out there.

I got hooked as a young kid with TNG and it's exploration, in 1992 or something.

 

[Warped9]

I caught a glimpse of TOS sometime in the '60s when my mother was flipping channels. But I didn't start to watch it until sometime in 1969/70 after we moved into our new house in Mississauga. So I was 10 or 11 and I became hooked instantly. I've been a fan ever since.

I latched onto TAS as I was hungry for new Trek and I avidly collected the James Blish's and Alan Dean Foster's adaptations of the episodes as well as other original novels that started coming out (in those days from Bantam books). TMP was a huge event for me and I looked forward to each new film.

I didn't care for TNG when it came along, but over the past twenty some years I've softened my stance on it. DS9 was okay when it started, but after a few seasons I lost interest in favour of other non Trek sci-fi (Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1 and SF novels). VOY and ENT left me absolutely cold.

I still think TOS is among the best science fiction done in the visual mediums (even with its less-than-inspired moments). I dispaired over how the reboots were done. But thankfully the TOS I remember and admire has been kept alive through the (so far) excellent fan webseries Star Trek Continues. It has certainly helped to keep my fan interest alive. I now once again have new stories and adventures to enjoy and discuss with friends and like minded folks.

 

[nightwind1]

Since September 8th, 1966; almost 49 years

Jesus...has it been that long?

Same here. I was five years old.

 

[Push The Button]

I've been a fan since the early 1970's, when good old WKBG channel 56 in Boston was airing Trek in the late afternoon on weekdays, a beautiful grainy UHF picture that I sometimes miss.